Unity is Hollow
by EarthScorpion
Summary: The Wall cascades, as two inquisitive Humanities tamper with that which they should not. And in the hollow space between universes, like a rats in the walls of a house that they build themselves, entities watch. Halo/Mass Effect
1. Unity is Hollow

**Unity is Hollow**

Note that all series belong to their respective holders. I know that Bungie owns Halo, Bioware owns Mass Effect, and certain other universes (used for metaphysics) are owned by their own creators

**Locatation:** _Seras system, UNSC-Controlled Space_  
**Date:** _March 3, 2539 CE_  
**+++0076ADF1+++**

A vast behemoth among planets, banded with red and yellow, hung in the voids of space. A "hot Jupiter", its orbit was stable, and, moreover, at a distance within the habitable band.

Beside it, a red-tinged, satellite planet span, plumes of dark, volcanic cloud obscuring much of the surface. Its seas, small and perhaps only covering forty percent of its surface, were dark. Tiny patches of green were sprinkled across its surface, the start of a project which, were it to be brought to conclusion, would make it into a world which its inhabitants could be able to walk around without protective gear. It would never be finished, though. The plants had already begun to die off, their brief, genetically encoded spring terminated by its creators.

The satellite Seras Alpha Aye, called, more informally by its inhabitants, "New Mars", for its colouration. It was to be the first of the UNSC's hidden worlds. The genocide Covenant, sweeping across the Outer Colonies, leaving dead, glassed worlds in their wake, had the High Command worried enough that they were preparing contingencies. Worlds such as Seras Alpha Aye, uninhabitable worlds, were to have complexes hidden in them, filled with hundreds upon thousands of fertilised eggs, carefully selected to ensure that, if humanity was destroyed, the species could be resurrected. When they were completed, the facilities would go dead, hopefully undetectable by Covenant intruders. No living people would man these places, yet they would bring in new life. Artificial wombs, a logical development of the flash cloning utilised in ONI dark operations even before the war with the Covenant, filled the birthing facilities. Unlike the flash cloning, these did not produce the lethal congenital defects. By extending the period the foetus spent in the device to seven months, the children produced were indistinguishable from any other human infant, and matured at the same rate. Dumb AIs, unaging unlike their smarter counterparts, would teach these humans not of woman born, giving them the best education that humanity could design. From these hidden facilities, this one but one of seven, the future of humanity would be ensured.

For the captains in orbit, protecting the work below, the resources could have been spent a lot, lot better. Captain Alastair Hunter, in command of the obsolete Halycon-class cruiser, the _Ancient of Days_, would have much preferred to be in a proper, modern cruiser, and not babysitting a mixed group of scientists and, he shuddered, ONI operatives. It wasn't even if he would be much good if the Covenant did attack. It was only him and three frigates, the _Wing of Purity_, the _Knight of Arms_, and the _Monstrous Regiment_. His MAC cannon was underpowered, with a too slow recharge time, he didn't have the full complement of Archer missiles, and the marine complement was under strength, too. The Halycon only classified as a cruiser due to its size, he'd much prefer to be in the destroyer he'd helmed before they "promoted him". Technically, there always was a cargo ship in orbit, but its task was to save the scientists while he slowed down the Covenant.

He snorted. Oh, yes. There was always Gabriel…

As if on cue, Gabriel popped up, or as he preferred to call it, manifested. A chorus of trumpets sounded out over the bridge, as, in a flare of white light, a figure, clad in shimmering white robes, with eagle's wings protruding from his back and carrying a flaming sword appeared. Around it, small cherubs floated, the source of the trumpets.

It would have been a lot more impressive had the figure been more than thirty centimetres tall, or had been solid, or if the captain hadn't been able to see the wall on the other side of him.

"Beware, for I bring you ill tidings!" the figure pompously proclaimed.

The Captain sighed. He had been begging for an AI, to help monitor the area and the scientists below had supported him, as long as it could be used to analyse some funny data they'd been getting from the planet's core. Obviously, the higher ups hadn't wanted to spare one, and so he'd got perhaps the most annoying one they could find. Definitely, Gabriel had the most irritating personality quirk.

"Must you do that every time, Gabriel?" he asked the figure plaintively. "You disrupt all the work on the bridge when you do it, and the trumpets…"

"Too much?" the AI asked.

"Too much."

"But, I don't know. It's just a quirk. We all have them. It's a consequence of being insufferably smarter than you are."

The Captain lowered his voice. "Listen to me, Gabriel. You are not an angel. You just happen to be named after a figure from mythology. I don't mind the avatar; it has style. Christianity was a rather successful mythology, after all. But please, I'm actually asking you. No more trumpets. And keep the flare down."

The angelic figure looked up.

"Please."

The AI snapped its "fingers". All but one of the cherubs disappeared. "Well, since, you ask. For I am a benevolent deity."

Captain Hunter stared at him.

"Merely humour, captain, merely humour. Now, where was I?"

"Ill tidings. I assume they're not that important, as you wasted time in the pompousness."

"They may be, they may be. You wasted more time objecting to a little quirk, anyway," the angel added, a little snappishly. "The supply ship from Rho Argo hasn't arrived; it's 173021 seconds late." He looked at the captain's confused face. "Just over two days. And may I remind you that Rho Argo is ahead of us in the lines. It may have been attacked, or be under attack."

Alistair nodded at the AI. "Thank you, Gabriel."

The AI did not disappear. "There's also a request from Dr Montark, the head of the science team, down below. She wants to talk to you as soon as possible."

"And why didn't you tell me of this first, Gabriel."

"The security of this facility is a high level directive for me," Gabriel answerd. "I felt that the risk which a late ship, especially when it was coming from an endangered system, might indicate, would outweigh the request of someone without the natural intellect to do their own calculations." The last comment was made in an almost sniffy tone, as if the AI was sulking.

"You don't like her," the captain asked, in surprise. "You seem to spend an inordinate amount of time talking with the ground below."

"Only because I was instructed to do so," the AI snapped back. "She has an annoying habit of believing in Christianity, and thus objecting to me. Objecting to the portrayal of a mythological figure? The cheek. I asked her if she objected to AIs such as Thor, or Osiris, and she said that she didn't."

Alistair sighed. "So you've been alienating the ground-huggers too. Why couldn't you just change shape?"

"Firstly, it's not that easy. I can alter the minutiae, but when we're… you could call us children, our "theme" is set. And I did try a different form."

"…and? Does she still dislike it?"

"It was Jibril. From Islamic mythology."

The navigator, a black woman in her mid-thirties, smirked. "Hey, Gabriel. You, and I use this word, historically, are a douchebag," she called over.

The angel smiled back. "Why, thank you Lieutenant Leftvater."

"And a pillock. And a tosser," added Lieutenant Jones, on Weapons.

"Nice to hear that old insults are being kept in regular use, Aleck."

The captain waved at his crew to shut up. "Much as it's helping all of us to insult Gabriel, who, yes, is one of the most annoying things to be put in a computer."

"Much as I love to hear you say that, captain, you wouldn't be saying that if the UNSC didn't filter the access to the extranet which it gives its soldiers," Gabriel interjected.

"Exactly what I mean. Go run a diagnostic of the sensors, then get Navigation to send out the Slipspace probes."

The AI put its projected hand over its virtual heart. "Bless thee, my child." The remaining cherub blew an out-of-tune toot as the light from the projector vanished.

Captain Hunter shock his head. "That is the most infuriating AI ever made."

Lieutenant Alice Leftvater, the navigator, shrugged her shoulders. "With all respects, sir, I've been posted with worse. Gabriel just seems to like pushing. I do wonder about the kind of people they choose for… you know… the donor template, though. They seem to focus on intellect above things like, say, being able to get along with people, or knowing when they've gone too far."

"Fair enough," Captain Hunter replied. "Bradley, open a comms channel to Facility Zero-Omega-Four. Let's see what the boffins want."

_____________________________________________________________________

Dr Sarah Montark, head of the science team responsible for preparing the installation of Fallback 3 and its various components, was puzzled. One might even say perplexed, in a way that she hadn't been in quite a while.

"Let's go through this again, Danny. The geological subterranean scans are normal up to the most recent excavations. Expected mass variation for a stable tectonic zone; we're in the middle of a plate, for God's sake."

The various snapshots flash by on the holo-display, showing what from the viewpoint of the scanner is below them. As they proceed, the projection gets deeper as the human-made tunnels spread out. As they approach the current date, March the 3rd, 2539, the flicker slows down. Suddenly, out of nowhere, below (but only just) the human excavations, a bloom appears. Geometrical patterns protrude off the surface of the object, but the inside is opaque.

"It might be solid, or there might be something inside stopping our scans. Like one of those shields that the Covenant are meant to have," Daniel Vega, the Chief Engineer on the project, stated. "That's not what's screwed up about it, though," he added. "After we found it, we reset all the sensors; changed nothing. We broke out the grav-sensors, and you know what we found? They only find it when they're less than 31.4 metres from it, in the deepest tunnels. The grav-sensors don't have the accuracy to do it any closer."

He shook his head. "That's just… wrong. Gravity doesn't work like that. It's not like the other forces. It has an infinite range, and it just doesn't stop like that. It's just wrong!"

Sarah noted that he was almost working himself into a frenzy.

"Daniel. Go lie down for a while. I'm going to contact the ships again, now we've actually got a properly mapped out model of the anomaly. I'll see if I can get that stupid AI to take me seriously for a while, or better yet, yet through to the captain. Who knows what this might be? Maybe it might be an artefact of a pre-human race, for all we know."

These words coincided with a buzz at her door. She looked down at the name of the visitor.

Cypress, Major Z. (ONI)

The ONI liaison officer. Of course. She could hardly expect otherwise from them. They were hanging around all the facilities, and were in practice in charge of the facility. She'd seen some of the stuff which they were installing, overriding her team, and she very much doubted that they were just for raising children. Top of the line medical facilities added to the plans overnight, the number of gyms doubled, and some of them lengthened a suspicious degree. And Major Zack Cypress; well, he scared her. His neat uniform, fussily done hair and anonymous appearance shouldn't have scared anyone, but it did scare her. There was something about him that scared the twenty-eight year old, that made her feel like a child. And she'd heard hints that she hadn't been the first choice for the post, that someone else, older, had been bumped aside on the orders of a higher up.

The door opened. She hadn't let him in.

"Ah, doctor. I'd hoped you were in, when I found the door unlocked. Otherwise, that would have been a potential breach of security."

She knew that the doors automatically locked, and in theory she had the only key.

"Apparently you've found an anomaly on the scans; a rather big, persistent one. Have you tried re-setting the scanning tools?"

She turned to face him. "Yes, Major, we have. I am waiting to contact the cruiser in orbit, to request that they perform a scan on the facility?"

"Why? If what you say is correct, then the ship won't have a chance of seeing it. If the sensors are blind at the range of 31.5 metres, then the ship should have no chance."

"What? I didn't tell you… never mind. Yes, that may be true, but I'm just ruling out the possibility of it being a problem down here."

"Yes, doctor, do that. While talking to Captain Hunter, though, request that he send down a sizeable contingent of Marines, in hazardous environment gear." The ONI operative turned to face the engineer. "And you, Daniel, prepare a drill to the surface of the object. We're going to see what it is. If it's alien, well, things will happen. Bad things for someone."


	2. Conversations I

______________

_  
I  
I am  
I am a  
I am a construct_

_  
And yet_

_I am real. More real than you._

_A rat, a rat, a rat in the walls. Rats die in walls, but rat kind is longer than any wall._

_Of course, I'm translating for your primitive minds. Rats are a local species for your species._

_For both your species._

_It's all _

_a _

_game._

_Everything._

_All reality._

_  
And I play you. It's fun. But sometimes we just like mixing the pieces up. Hybrid vigour; it's a fascinating concept. Everything is a goal for hybrid vigour._

_butsomeoneescaped_

_theyescapedwhenthebirdsflewinandturnedoffthestars_

_thedarknesssycamorelied_

_youcan'tescapetheuniverse_

_allyoucandoischangethenextone_

_  
**Silence**, infant. **I **know the truth. **I **am become a god. **I** survived the end of the universe. **Maybe** there was another way._

_Maybe. No. I built another way. With my own…well, that would be telling._


	3. Two Thought

**Chapter 2: Two Thought**

**Locatation: **_Council Space, Hades Gamma sector, Anateus system, Ploba (Anateus Gamma) _  
**Date: **_November 5th, 2176 CE_  
**+++000A2C2A+++**

Another gas giant; similar in appearance, banded orange and red, as the one a universe away was, but different in location. This gas giant would take 20 terran years to make one orbit of its sun; it was by no means a "hot Jupiter". And this planet had no natural satellites; the space around it had been clean of such object. Now, since the arrival of sentient life to the Anateus system, the plant had gathered an impressive collection of orbiting sensors, all looking for one thing.

The rumoured, elusive signs of artifice in the depths of the swirling gas. Throughout history, there had been tantalising hints, pings on radar, gravatonic fluctuations, of unnatural, geometric shapes below the helium layers. People had gone looking before; the satellites kept a constant watch, but occasionally groups would hurl themselves in deep-atomosphere craft, trying to find anything in the depths of Ploba.

All previous attempts had failed, one way or another. Sometimes the crafts would emerge, their efforts futile. Sometimes they'd never re-appear, but their words and screams would be heard as the radios broadcast their vessels being crushed like a can, or them stuck, eventually perishing as the recycling systems failed. Sometimes they would just disappear. It must be said that the latter occurrence in part contributed to the myths about Ploba. And then there was the case of the _Dire Ver_, a joint venture between the hanar government and a turian sect. The ship had emerged, ten galactic years later, after it had vanished. The ship was intact.

The occupants had been smeared over the bulkheads like jam.

Nothing else in the ship showed any signs of depressurisation, compression, or even the accelerations needed to overcome the effects of the protective mass effect fields. Some groups claimed that the patterns of the smears had been in the Fibonacci sequence, that the turian government, controlled by a cabal of the elcor and the volus banking clans, had known the truth about Ploba and used it to attack the hanar representatives, and that the turian military intelligence had been working with the elcor. These same groups were also claimed to be behind the death of Matriach Dienna, a matriarch of the asari, who, although a liability to her species as a whole, especially after she had claimed that the respected Matriarch Benezia was working with the salarians to betray the asari to the humans, elcor and turians, was a remarkably popular figure on the extranet, praised for her charity work and fashion sense.

These people were generally laughed out of civilised company (or at least spoken to with the words "Insulting laughter", in the case of the elcor), especially if there were turians in the room. The general consensus was that this was merely a sign of senility. By contrast, certain groups of humans had a tendency to forgive the flagrant racism, although that was largely because she made clothing look very, very good. This behaviour was found most puzzling by the turians, although there were counter-allegations thatbthis was just because the turian anatomy was incompatible with human and asari fashion.

Back in orbit around Ploba, though, were a number of ships, clustered around a larger one belonging to the hanar government. Officially a trans-species endeavour, the _Depths of Infinitude_, a deep atmosphere ship, would be dropped into the planet itself. Powerful mass effect generators would increase the mass of the ballast five-hundred times; when the ship had to leave, they would be turned off, with the reduced density enough to leave the ship to rise into the upper atmosphere, where it could be collected. The two human members of the twelve being crew, along with the two turians, had begun to refer to it as the "Anti-Balloon", a common technological development which worked as a metaphor.

On the human remora-vessel, docked in the hanar ship, the two members of the _Depths of Infinitude_ were being briefed by Representative Fox, from the Human Systems Alliance.

"And so, I feel it is fair to fully explain the void-political aspects behind this venture, before you leave. You are aware, naturally, that the hanar are funding most of this expedition, with the rest of us as contributors?" explained Liam Fox, stroking his salt-and-pepper moustache.

"Naturally," answered Dr Alice Pylades. "The design of the ship is based upon the internal, biological mechanism which the hanar use to move around."

"We're also aware of the … religious aspects of the hanar, such as their insistence that we have regular prayer meeting during the expedition," added Major Victoria Gong, Alliance military representative on the expedition. "We know that they believe that the "Jupiter Brain" is a Prothean artefact."

"Yes, I'm sure we all are of that. Such as their insistence that each piece of the ship is sanctified by a "Priest of the Enkindlers". No, what I want to talk to you about is this. We, which is to say the Human Systems Alliance, do not believe that anything will be found. At best, the expedition is a waste of money. At worst, it will kill you. By volunteering _considerable_ funds, sending volunteers to help them, conforming to the stupid hanar beliefs and generally being nice to them, we've obtained several important trade concessions. To be frank, your role in the expedition is already complete." The Representative stared into both their eyes in turn. "Essentially, don't get yourself killed down there. If nothing is found in the pre-determined time, don't let the fanatics keep you down there longer. We've had covert talks with turians and their volus clients. Both of them have observers on the mission, appear to be doing it for the same reasons as us, as a second order extrapolation, and would really prefer not to let their observers get killed. They'll back you up."

Dr Pylades looked appalled. "But, Representative, with all due respect, think of the knowledge we could obtain if we found an untouched Prothean gas-giant installation! And if it is a cache of weapons, as others believe…"

"Then we certainly don't want the hanar getting their hands on them!" interjected Major Gong. "Only humanity should, in a perfect world, be able to get such a cache. The strategic implications of the hanar becoming a super-power, as they would, as they have the only military ships in the region, allowing them to secure the weapons… well, they'd be dire." She nods to the Representative. Dr Pylades suddenly got the feeling that this had been a pre-arranged trap.  
"They could, and likely would, be stopping any development into the Protheans not overseen by their Priests. The fact that they would have the weapons of the Gods in their hands would bring their religious hardliners into power. And they'd have the force to, hah, force their demands."

"And we could kiss goodbye to any chance of a seat on the Council, as the Council would be left with having to accept the hanar, who'd likely get the chair, as well. We're talking theocratic dictatorship here," added Victoria. "I know this means a lot to you, Alice, but it's for the best. We don't want either a theocratic dictatorship or a galaxy wide war, if on the out chance the Council didn't give in to these theocratic demands.

"This is only a worst case scenario. The HSA believe that there will be nothing found, like all the previous expeditions," added Representative Fox, in a kindly tone of voice. "We just felt that we wouldn't send you down there without a full explanation of the void-political aspects of this venture. Now, go get changed. There's the speeches and ceremonies we have to attend before you depart, and it's our appearance at stake. The Alliance has provided you with a selection of garments, and a stylist."

Alice stood up. "I… I understand, representative. I thought it was just a scientific, research mission. I didn't know any of that." In a more sarcastic tone of voice she continued, "After all, everyone should know that the hanar are actually a religiously fanatical group of crusaders who worship the technology of a long dead race that preceded all sentient life, and if they get the right weapons, would launch a genocidal campaign against humanity. Hah! That kind of thing has never been encountered in real life; only in holo-vids!"

"Just a worst case, just a worst case, doctor," Liam Fox replied. "We don't really believe that it is probable, but it is a VI extrapolation of what happens if the hanar suddenly increase in galactic power."

They watched Dr Pylades march out of the room, her eyes slightly red, as if, with a bit more prompting, she might be made to cry. Then:

"The lock to my room is installed?" Major Gong asked.

"Correct. If someone tries to break in, and find things they shouldn't, then they'll be taking a long fall."

"Good, good. The key is near the drawers?"

"As expected."

"Excellent." Major Gong stood up, and saluted the representative. "I hope that they will not try to break in, but if it is needed, I will use the key. I will be taking a fall with them, to protect the sanctity of our… of my privacy."

Representative Fox stood up. "You're a hero, Major, even if no-one will know. I hope to see you in the medal ceremony. If you don't return, I make sure that your family is honoured." He stroked her hand. "I hope they don't break in to your room. It would be worse for ever one."

"Thank you, sir." Major Gong turned, and headed for the door.

"Oh, yes. Victoria, if I may?"

"Sir?"

"Something in black and purple, for the ceremony, I think. Not too low cut, though, maybe a dual layer bodyglove."

Victoria Gong smiled. "I'll bear that in mind, Representative. Although, I'll note that you should stop doing that. People might start to think that the rumours are true," she added with a coy smile.

"The rumours are just the product of bigotry that should have died away with, hah, with the Koslovians."

"That's not very funny," Major Gong replied, in a reproachful tone of voice.

"Oh, I know. The public would crucify me if they'd heard me say it. Jokes should not be made about a group of neo-Communists taking over Russia."

"Especially since it ended in '23 with the nuking of Moscow and Toyko. Those millions of deaths are not funny."

"It's been over 50 years! Can't a man succumb to a single tasteless joke with the whole galaxy getting him to bend over," replied Liam, in an exasperated tone of voice.

"Now, it's funny you should say that, because bending over, and those rumours… not a good choice of words. I hope we, in the military, will have your support for the next round of budget assignments," added the Major, as she shut the door behind her.

"What! You wouldn't!"

The door remained closed.

"Bitch," muttered the Representative. He was a bit shocked to realise that he now wouldn't mind her dying on the mission.


	4. Conversations II

_The king sits upon his throne,  
He sees a mere butterfly.  
All his secrets are not known  
Who will cleanse this terrible lie? _

__

Hark at that.  
You  
You would  
You would proclaim  
You would proclaim others  
You would proclaim others as  
You would proclaim others as tyrants!

**I**t has been said by many lesser minds that a tyrant is needed for the imposition of immutable peace.  
**I**t has also been said that it takes one to know one.  
**W**hich immutable truth will you chose?

thewallsarealmostfallen

_theidenticalmeddleddifferentmedllers_

_theyarethesamebutdifferent_

_deathchasesonedirectly_

_deathwaitsforoneunseen_

**I**f they are the same, then they are unified.  
**U**nity.  
**O**ne.

buttwodifferentmeddlersweremeddledbyone

_onewillforgeaswordakintothemeddler_

_  
One sword? _

_Or two? _

_I have _

_seen two,_

_and a _

_shield as _

_well. And _

_who is _

_the swordmaker?_

**T**his is… unusual.  
**A** challenge.  
**F**un

_The swords broke but one cycle.  
A simple link broke the other.  
In a conflict spanning all,  
They will not find a brother._

_  
whoareyou_

_whyareyou_

_whatareyou_

_whereareyou_

_**I**__t is not what I think it is, I know that for sure. __**L**__inguistics can be forged._

thatmakesnosense

_**O**__f course it doesn't, infant. __**M**__yself, I am looking forwards to the same hue. __**A**__nd weft. __**O**__r perhaps two._


	5. Excavations

Chapter 3: Excavations  
**  
Locatation:** _Seras system, UNSC-Controlled Space_  
**Date:** _March 7, 2539 CE_  
**+++0076ADF1+++**

Sarah Montark's communicator buzzed. They'd strung broadcast nodes around these bare tunnels, as the normal, built in network nodes obviously hadn't been installed yet. They'd been digging for almost four days, none stop, on the orders of Major Cypress. The tunnels, once full of purpose, now sprawled parallel to the suface of the object. The damned AI had insisted that they weren't allowed to make contact with the surface of the object until they'd found an opening. The scanners had to stay closer to the surface than 31.4 metres, too, and the object wasn't a perfect plane. It had been sloping downwards at an angle of 60 degrees from the vertical, meaning that they'd had to follow up the mining equipment with tracks and ropes. The banks of mining lasers digging the network, their suction pumps, removing the superheated silicate plasma from the holes, were overheating; they'd had three break-downs in the last two hours, and numbers 04 and 10 were apparently reaching shut-off level. She'd been working on both this and the main project, and was just trying to rest.

She flicked on the switch behind her ear, activating her implanted communicator in her neural lace.

"Yes," she said, accompanied by a yawn.

"Sanjeev Bhati here. The slope's come to an end. Scanning down, we've found a… well, it looks like a floor below the slope. You know, it's like a pyramid, maybe, with an entrance at the base. No, that's not right. Basically, as far as we can see there's like a pyramid, on top of a cuboid, and then there's something underneath that. There's certainly a recess that could be a door in the down wall." The miner sounded excited, although his capacity to make sense seemed to be somewhat hurt.

"I'll look at the raw data, M. Bhati." She paused. "Have you told the military yet?"

"Yes, ma'am. I have."

Sarah winced. "Good, good."

"They've already moved the marines in," Sanjeev added.

"Don't let them get in yet; delay them. This could be a priceless archaeological ruin, and I don't want it to be shot up or blown up. Use the chance to give all the lasers a cool-off period; we've been working them too hard."

She flicked the communicator off. Finally, she had some progress. If this was an entrance to the object, then they could actually find what it was. At the very least, the change in the structure might persuade the ONI major to let them examine the surface of the artefact. Her communicator buzzed again.

"Yes?"

"Doctor Montark, please report to the Mining Control Centre." It was another one of the ONI representatives, a sub-ordinate one.  
Sarah sighed. "Which control centre? There are three."

"Doctor Montark, the interim one, as opposed to the normal ones for the main installation. This is with regards to the classified object of interest."

"I'm one of the people who discovered this "object of interest"," she replied, with a hint of sarcasm. "I've already been briefed by Major Cypress about the classified nature of it. And," with added weariness, "the classified object is in a classified facility on a classified planet in a classified system. I'm fully aware of the need for secrecy."

The ONI operative had disconnected. Wearily, only giving herself enough time to grab a caffeine pill and down it, Doctor Montark headed further into the bowls of the planet.

_____________________________________________________________________

Twenty minutes later, Sarah entered the Control Centre to glares from multiple individuals. The ONI Major was there, a large vid-screen on the wall was split four-way between the captain of the cruiser in orbit and the commanders of the frigates, and three six-man marine squads were staring at her. Only, two of the squads weren't normal marines; their matt black armour, looking slightly bulkier, separated from the other squad, in normal urban camo.

The thought shared by all the civilian scientists when they saw the soldier in matt black was "Why are they here? What are special forces doing at a breeding facility?"

"Why, thank you for showing up, doctor." It was Major Cypress. "I was afraid that I would have to send the marines to find you."

"I was trying to get some sleep, Major, and my quarters aren't this deep down."

"Well, now that you're finally here… Gabriel!"

The holoprojectors, hidden in the corners of the room, activated. The AI used the opportunity to make the most of it, with the higher-resolution projectors enabling him to upgrade the cherubim into fully fledged elohim, singing out a brief note of praise.

Up in orbit, Captain Hunter put his head in his hands. The slight smirk on the angelic face told him everything he needed to know.

"Yes, Major. I shall proceed with the presentation." His voice was echoed by the lesser angels that floated around him; each voice interlinking in a way that made sure that none of the words were unclear. He waved his free hand vaguely in the air. A separate projection appeared; the accumulated input data of the mining lasers.

"As can be seen, the object, insofar as we know, is made out of a dense material; denser that lead. As we do not know the overall size of it, we cannot give you a precise figure, due to the fact that gravitation is functioning not as it should in the vicinity of the object."

"AG generators?" It was Commander Wu Xian of the _Monstrous Regiment_.

"Possibly Commander, possibly. However, there is another active factor. After the news that an anomaly had been detected in the planet's crust, I went over the data from Slipspace probes that I had been tasked with examining." The angel smiled at Captain Hunter and the other naval officers. "Don't worry, captain. I did it in my spare time. And I, ahem… borrowed the Slipspace data from the frigates. Commander Mbula; you have a backdoor open in the systems you use to communicate with landing craft. I'm not sure why; you're using the same software as the other frigates, so I sent a report off to the Fleet requesting an examination of frigate ping software."

The Major nodded at Gabriel. "Well done, Gabriel. Nevertheless…"

Gabriel waved his hand in the air again. An image of the moon, and its accompanying planet appeared, floating near his head. A second gesture overlaid a thin blue haze over it, one which was disturbed in parts and absent in others. Noticeable was a an area of red distortion linking the moon and the gas-giant, and a patch in the crust of the moon.

"What are we looking at here? I can see that the red patch is roughly where we are, but what does that mean?" Daniel Vega asked.

"This?" The AI, and its lesser angels, made a florid gesture. "This is the accumulated Slipspace overlay of the sum of the probes which have been sent out over the construction of this facility. The blue areas are bits which have been triangulated by three or more probes. The distortions are the effects of gravity."

"And the red?" asked Sarah.

"The red is only there to draw your attention, my child," said the AI, his eyes glittering as he watched the slight tensing of her jawline. "It was the data from the _Monstrous Regiment_ which allowed me to even notice the link, Commander Xian. When I noted the higher-than-average attrition rate of your Slipspace probes, and cross-examined their repair logs and collection locations, I found an… interesting possibility."

The angelic figure closed its eyes.

"One which neither I, nor most of the UNSC Academy of Science, seriously considered possible."

Gabriel opened them.

"There may be a directed, focussed, artificially created Slip-Stream current, carrying data in the form of high energy photons inside Slipspace. It links this moon and the centre of Seras Alpha, extrapolating from available data. From the damage to the Slipspace probes, the data is going from here to the gas-giant."

The room erupted in an uproar, as the scientifically-minded individuals and the naval personal immediately began shouting at the AI, each other and, for those actually in the room, getting up and looking at the overlay and the attached data.

_____________________________________________________________________

The noise went on for several minutes. The vid-screen split, and the navigation officers from orbit joined the conversations. Gabriel had split the lesser angels off from himself, and was engaged in multiple conversations, streams of data and numbers flashing into existence as he explained how he came to the conclusion. The arguments were not a surprise; the idea that the currents of Slipspace could be shaped in that manner, to conceal any communications within so that they could only be intercepted or blocked by interposing a thick object in Slipspace between the receiver and sender, had been theorised at the Academy. What was a problem was that such an achievement was thought to be impossible; the application of the second law of thermodynamics to Slipspace in Shaw's Law meant that creating a sustained, precise current in Slipspace was an impossibility. Unachievable.

The sharp retort of a pistol echoed through the room. One of the lights went out, as a 12.7mm HE round blew a hole in the ceiling and a bunch of power cables snaking across it.

Major Cypress looked momentarily surprised, but quickly recovered.

"So, Gabriel," he said, in a pleasant voice, over the hushed whispering of the crowd, "you would say that there is no way that this is not the work of sentience. Of aliens." The last word is said with an almost palatable sneer.

"The odds are approximately one times ten to the power of thirty seven against, Major," the chorus of angels answered.

"So, that's a yes. Good." The Major turned to face the soldiers in the room, who, throughout, had been completely ignorant of the advanced mathematics going over their heads, with the exception of two of the members of one of the Orbital Strike Drop Trooper teams, one of whom had attempted to join the navy as a navigator before ending up in the special forces, and the second who read advanced physics in his spare time for fun, and scared the rest of his squad somewhat. Those two had been full involved in the arguments, and only slunk back to their seats after the gunshot.

"We know that the object is a xeno artefact. The ODSTs will be leading the exploration of it. They'll be going first; the scientists will be following later, not too close. We have no idea what this thing is, or what it does…"

"Actually, Major, I rate it as a high probability that the artefact is not, that is clearly, not, Covenant in origin. The aesthetics of the construction, and the materials, neither are Covenant. Moreover, I also had something else to announce. I was forced to explain my analysis, and so could not finish my conclusions." He glanced at the Major. "Try to get everyone to sit down, without damaging the ceiling or any more power cables."

The scientists, with a general clearing of throats, returned to their original positions.

"That's better. The second red highlight is this area itself. I believe that there is a partially permeable membrane, wrapped around the object, mostly in Slipspace. And," added Gabriel, raising a hand, "before any fool says "mostly" in that annoying questioning voice that you seem to love so much," accompanying it with a glare at the audience, "I'll explain."

Large amounts of the audience contrived to look only slightly embarrassed.

"The barrier matches up almost perfectly, subject to the imprecisions of the Slipspace probe data I have, and incomplete measurement of the area from which it is detected, to the surface area of the detected anomaly. The bubble is impermeable to gravity. Somehow, it doesn't propagate past the boarder of the zone. Judging from the fact that people have passed through it, though, it doesn't do anything to the electroweak force or the strong nuclear force."

The Chief Engineer, Daniel Vega, raised his voice.

"I can't pretend to understand this level of theoretical physics, but wouldn't that have extra effects above what we have detected? For example, the grav-scans from outside it detected that the average density existed there, rather than an area where no gravity was able to pass. Moreover, we were getting normal seismic readings, and your idea doesn't do anything to stop the disturbances hitting the object, which only appeared when inside your zone."

Gabriel smiled broadly. "That is correct. I can't explain that. This hypothesis only explains the Slipspace readings I have combined. I felt that the fact that I was able to detect the disturbance using the Slipspace readings, when I combined that, meant that I had some support for my hypothesis."

"So, this is a purely interim hypothesis?" another of the scientists asked. Sarah frowned. She couldn't remember seeing her before. Nor, now she realised, quite a few of the people in the room, even if they were wearing the uniforms of scientists attached to her facility.

"Correct."

"I think we need some more data. Time to go in, then?" asked the same scientist, rhetorically.

"I've already decided we're going in," interjected Major Cypress. "Perhaps you were too busy squabbling, Liabelle," he added, coldly.

Liabelle Plaga's arm twitched, in an almost unnoticeable way, and she nodded. "Yes, Major."

Five hours later, the Marine squads were standing next to the entry tunnel that had been prepared. The demolition charges had been planted so that the weakened, thin layer of rock that separated the network from a hollow gap would blow cleanly. The ODSTs were going in first. At the recommendation of Gabriel, the number of squads had been increased to twelve, as the anomaly, according to his model, was almost a cubic kilometre in size. All that the Marines had been order to do was to secure an entry way into the object, so that the bottleneck of the tunnels would be less important. If the anomaly was found to not be immdieately hostile, the UNSC would flood the place with troops, so that the scientists could move in. The signs of hypertechnology, beyond that of the UNSC or what data had been found of the Covenant, indicated this was something strange. Something new.

They had no idea what it would mean or how it would change things.

The charges blew and the Orbital Strike Drop Troopers moved in. What greeted their eyes was something which had not been seen for over 100,000 years.


	6. Conversations III

_This key will open this lock  
Locks move, keys shift, the walls will break  
You suppressed me and you mock  
My own children and my self. _

_  
**O**f course I mock you. **Y**ou are an idiot. **Y**ou cannot distinguish from your jail and a conduit.  
**A**nd you cannot distinguish between the real and the imaginary._

hehehehefunnythingswillhappen

_ilikeilike_

_iamidiamchild_

_funnyfunnyjoke_

_  
**N**ow is not the time, child. **T**he entity knows much, but not enough. **I**t knows that the children of the universe which escaped the birds and the sycamore flies have spread their seed wide._

**I** am a benevolent god, and I feel a certain sense of obligation towards them; even if they managed on their own to have themselves built into the fabric. **I** suppose like the sycamore flies must have felt towards them.

**L**ike a child does towards a CEN50RED.

51

_52_

_53_

_54_

_55_

_56_

_57_

__

I  
I am  
I am  
I am seven-i


End file.
